Lauren Gomez-Nieto
Research Mentor: Kenneth Kollman
Mentor Department: Center for Political Studies, ISR
Author(s): Lauren Gomez-Nieto, Kenneth Kollman, Julia Lippman
Session: Session 2 (10:00 AM – 10:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 88
Abstract
In the early 2000s, Brazil experienced a political movement known as the “pink tide†which highlights its shift in political leaders to left-leaning progressives. While this was a nationwide movement, when looking at the elections of the Upper House, one can see the political standings of the people within different constituencies when comparing rural and urban communities. This study explores the collection of election data in Brazil’s Upper House made available through The Elections Archive (THEA), an ongoing research project since 2008, specifically comparing the results of the 1998 election and 2002 election. The results of the rural and urban constituencies are then compared to see where more left-leaning candidates are elected, and if there is a nationwide shift towards left-leaning candidates or not. My hypothesis is that there was an overall left-leaning shift in the country politically, but the urban communities had a greater left-leaning shift than the rural communities. The results conclude that urban communities were more likely to elect left-leaning candidates when compared to rural constituencies, however, the rural constituencies elected more left-leaning Upper House candidates in 2002 when compared to the 1998 election. These results not only highlight a change in views in the country, but also reflect the overall political climate leaning towards more progressive social programs and politics. Brazil has had a left leaning president for almost 15 years, and these Upper House results back up the shift in overall political alignment in Brazil, as well as specified political alignment in each constituency.
